Houthis join Middle East conflict

The Yemeni group has said it is entering the battle against the US and Israel in support of Iran and other “resistance” factions

Yemen’s Houthi armed forces announced their formal entry into the conflict in the Middle East, firing several missiles at Israel.

The group, which controls the Yemeni capital Sanaa and much of the country’s north, has stayed out of the action since the US and Israel first attacked Tehran on February 28.

But on Saturday, Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree issued a statement, declaring support for Tehran and other “resistance” factions in the region.

The group is compelled to begin military operations against the US, Israel and their allies due to ongoing escalation, attacks on infrastructure, and “atrocities” committed in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq and the Gaza Strip, he said.

Read more

”Our fingers are on the trigger” if any nation decides to join the strikes by Washington and West Jerusalem or if the Red Sea is used for targeting Iran, Saree warned.

Several hours later, the Houthis said that they had launched “a salvo of ballistic missiles towards sensitive Israeli military sites,” timing the attack with the operations carried out by Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The group said they will continue its strikes “until the aggression against all resistance fronts ceases.”

Israel reported shooting down two missiles coming from Yemen on Saturday.

When asked about the Houthi attack, Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said that West Jerusalem is “preparing for a multifront war.”

Over the past two-and-a-half years, the Houthis have launched more than 130 ballistic missiles and dozens of drones at Israel, killing one person and wounding several others, according to the Times of Israel.

The Yemeni fighters said they were acting in support of the Palestinians in Gaza after West Jerusalem launched its military operation targeting the enclave in response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas incursion into Israel.

The group also disrupted shipping in the Red Sea, targeting around a hundred Israeli-linked vessels in the Gulf of Aden and sinking two of them.

Read more

In 2025, the US launched a bombing campaign against Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. While it concluded in May without achieving the defeat of the group promised by US President Donald Trump, the White House announced that a deal had been reached with the militants for their attacks on the vessels to stop.

A possible intensification of the Houthi strikes on shipping could further increase oil prices and destabilize “all of maritime security,” senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, Ahmed Nagi, warned. “The impact would not be limited to the energy market,” he said.

With the Strait of Hormuz being effectively closed as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Saudi Arabia has redirected its oil trade to the Red Sea, sending millions of crude daily through the 32-km-wide (20-mile-wide) Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

When the Houthis targeted vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb in 2024 and 2025, shipping companies were forced to change routes and send them around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, which led to delays and significantly increased costs.